The present invention relates generally to user interfaces for document-processing devices, such as copiers, printers, scanners, and the like, and more specifically to a user interface that provides assistance to solve a user's multiple set printing problems.
The continued evolution of office document machines, such as copiers, printers, facsimile machines, and scanners, has resulted in highly sophisticated and function-rich machines. Typical selectable functions, such as for a copier, include making darker or lighter copies, selecting a number of copies, selecting from a number of alternate paper sizes, selecting stapled copies, copying on one or both sides of a paper sheet from one or both sides of an original, and image reduction or enlargement. Substantial efforts have been devoted to the design and layout of such machines to enhance an operator's understanding and reduce the possibility of operator entry errors. In a distributed, network oriented document management system, such as including one or redistributed printers, scanners, facsimile devices, and the like, such complicated functions may be selected via a “window” on a standard personal computer screen. Regardless of the particular interface used to control one or more document machines, there is still a premium to be placed on avoiding operator confusion.
As office equipment becomes increasingly a matter of interaction between networked peripherals, it is more common to have the users make their selections via a personal computer. However, some popular software applications cause problems for the customer when the customer attempts to print multiple sets of documents where the customer or someone else has selected certain operations to be performed on the documents. These operations may include duplexing or stapling. He or she may find that the first page of one set is often printed on the back of the last page of the previous set or that all the sets are stapled together as one huge document. In addition, the job can take an inordinate amount of time to spool and to print. This occurs because there is no break between the sets. The root cause of the problem is that some popular software applications render all pages of all sets themselves rather than rendering one set and allowing the printer to efficiently produce the duplicate sets.